They're all heroes

You know, the longer this season went on, the more I thought that I wasn't going to have to write this post. I thought that this was our year. I suppose, in many ways, it still has been our year.

But take nothing away from the Phillies. They played better than the Rays all through the World Series, and they are fully deserving of their championship. Well done Philadelphia. Perhaps we'll make it to a rematch next year.

To be honest, right from game one I wasn't quite as sure of a Rays win as I had been going in to it.

(And before you draw any conclusions, no that's not why I wasn't blogging - I've had a ridiculously busy couple of weeks. And that combined with staying up all through the night has meant that I probably couldn't have written a coherent sentence even if I did have time to... Truth be told I probably still won't get back to something like normal service for another week or so yet, and then you can expect a proper set of season reviews, as well as the much anticipated (by me at least!) RAPAs - the Rays from Across the Pond Awards).

As for the series - well, we didn't perform. We were out of form in pretty much every area, starting pitching, relief pitching, hitting and defense. And though we kept it close even through all that, you can't expect to win against a quality side like the Phillies if you're not playing at your best.

And it's true, that after the amazing first 173 games of this season, not ending the year as World Champions is a disappointment.

But I just want to think about that statement for a second. We can actually have a sense of disappointment that the Rays are not the Champions. The Tampa Bay Rays. A team that's highpoint in its whole existance before this season was winning 70 games.

What a year it has been.

And every single player that has pulled on a Rays uniform is a hero. What they have achieved, even having fallen short of the biggest prize, will not be forgotten quickly by anyone in Rays-world. By anyone in the baseball world come to that.

And even before I have the time to write a proper tribute to them all, I just wanted to take the opportunity to say that. These Rays have nothing to be disappointed about. They should feel only pride at what they have achieved. They have done the impossible. They have dispatched the Yankees and the Red Sox. They have won games that they never should have won, and won series that they never should have had a chance in. They have gone from nobodies to household names.

And more than any of that - they have put Tampa Bay on the baseball map.

Don't get me wrong, I would have liked the big one. But come February when pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training, the 2009 season will start and the defending American League Champions will have the word RAYS emblazoned on their chests.

I'll settle for that.

World Series

Five hours from now.

Tropicana Field, St Petersburg, Florida.

First pitch of the 2008 MLB World Series.

Scott Kazmir.

Of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Unreal.  

I am very, very excited right now.  Not to mention incredibly nervous.  But, 1am UK time, you can be certain that I will be in front of the TV watching a little bit of history being made.  And hoping that these amazing Rays might just be able to make a little more.

Go Rays!!!

ALCS game 7 - American. League. Champions.

Say it slowly.

Say it again.

Believe it.

The 2008 American League Champions are the Tampa Bay Rays.

Playing for the 2008 World Series title will be the Tampa Bay Rays.

Boston Red Sox 1 - Tampa Bay Rays 3

Seven outs away, and coasting to a five-game win, to a game 7 decider against the defending World Champion Red Sox. I cannot begin to tell you how nervous I was last night. As it turns out, I was far more nervous than anyone wearing a Rays uniform.

And you know what? After all they have done this year, that doesn't even surprise me anymore. They have taken on the best all year long, and they have never waivered and never faltered. They are unbelieveable.

And last night, no-one was more unbelieveable than Matt Garza. He gave up a homerun to the second batter of the game, and then nothing. He simply powered through the dangerous Boston lineup time and time again. He didn't allow another hit until the seventh inning. He left after 7+, having struck out 9 and given up just the two hits. It was a magnificent display of pitching under huge pressure. And nobody could possibly argue that he wasn't a worthy choice for the series MVP.

Garza's performance was just one of a littany of storybook tales that helped sned the Rays to their storybook World Series. The relief effort might have been even bigger. Dan Wheeler, JP Howell and Chad Bradford all pitched to a batter or two in the eighth, as Boston loaded the bases with two out and JD Drew coming to the plate. Who does Joe Maddon call from the 'pen? David Price. A 23-year-old rookie with just 5 regular season appearances. Crazy?

Nah. Because David Price was clearly the coolest man in the Trop. Slider, slider, fastball, fastball. JD Drew struck out, inning over. Price comes back out for the ninth. He walks the leadoff man, but again shows his remarkable calmness - strikeout, strikeout, ground ball. His first ever save. In game 7 of the American League Championship Series. This kid is something special.

So is Evan Longoria, whose impressive battling at-bat was responsible for tying the game up in the fourth. He fought off several pitches before flipping a pitch down the right field line for an RBI-double. And the way Garza was throwing, even against Jon Lester, only one team looked likely to win it.

Move on to the fifth, and Willy Aybar is on second. Rocco Baldelli comes to the plate with an 0-6 career mark against Lester. This is a Rays' fairytale right? Well then, how about a game-winning RBI for a long-tenured Ray who had earlier in the year been diagnosed with a condition that left him in a constant state of fatigue, and which meant that he wasn't certain whether he would ever play Major League Baseball again. Sounds good to me. Rocco slapped the ball into left for a single and Aybar came motoring around to score the go-ahead run.

Aybar has been a bit of a hero for the Rays this season as well, and he gave the team some breathing room in the seventh, going deep for the second time in the series..

And now the Rays are going to another series.

The World Series.

I'm not quite sure I can believe it.

ALCS games 5 & 6 - Sucked

Tampa Bay Rays 7 - Boston Red Sox 8
Boston Red Sox 4 - Tampa Bay Rays 2

Ok, so a Boston comeback of some sort was almost inevitable. The manner of it was potentially devastating. I am honestly not sure that I could have faced writing about these two games - although that is not the reason I didn't. I was travelling back to Basingstoke on Friday, and out all day on Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure I will look back at these two games at some point, but for now lets just say that they sucked.

ALCS game 4 - Wow, just wow

Tampa Bay Rays 13 - Boston Red Sox 4

I just don't know how we are doing this. I mean, I know this Rays team is good - very, very good - but still, this is the first ever postseason for most of them, and they're playing at Fenway against the been there, done that, got the t-shirt Red Sox. The defending World Champion Red Sox.

But man, are we playing some good baseball. And while the Sox are most definitely not out of it yet - their ALCS comebacks of recent years are still fresh in the memory - if we can carry on pitching, hitting and fielding like we have in the last few games, then there is no reason why the first pitch of the World Series couldn't be thrown at Tropicana Field. We need one win in the next three games to get there. That is a scary thought.

Now I am stupidly tired this morning (game finished at 4.18AM, I went to bed and set my alarm for 8AM...), but I don't care. Last night's game was totally worth it. Three hours and seven minutes of pure Rays-world joy.

It started in the top of the first. BJ Upton walked (and stole second), and Carlos Pena - who had homered in the ninth to round out game 3 - carried on where he had left off by drilling a Tim Wakefield floater the other way and into the Monster seats. That brought up the Rays' own monster, Evan Longoria, who promptly followed suit, relocating another pitch high above left field. The third consecutive game that Evan has homered in, and the fifth of his postseason. Setting a new record for a rookie. Have I mentioned before that Evan is quite good?

The Rays couldn't add any more in the first (although there was still time for Carl Crawford to double and steal third before Wakefield got out of it), but they didn't let their 2008 dominance of their (former!) nemesis end there. With 2 outs in the third, CC reached on an infield single, stole second, and then was able to jog home as Willy Aybar connected for his second homerun of the year off of Wakefield - again batting righthanded, and depositing the ball over the Monster and into the Boston night. That was all she wrote for Wakefield, and after allowing Dioner Navarro to single, his day was done - 2 2/3 innings, 3 HR, 5 runs.

Kevin Cash pulled a run back for Boston in the bottom of the inning with a solo homer, but the Rays just had to wait for the dynamic duo of Crawford and Aybar to come back to the plate to get that 5-run advantage back. That happened in the fifth, as Crawford drilled his second double of the night and was then singled home by Aybar.

One inning later, and the 5-run lead became a 10-run lead. Fernando Perez made the first and last outs of the inning, but everything in between turned to gold. Jason Bartlett tripled. Aki Iwamura walked. BJ Upton singled home Bartlett. Carlos Pena walked. Evan Longoria walked in Aki. Carl Crawford singled in Upton. Willy Aybar singled in Pena. And Dioner Navarro grounded, out scoring Longo. That's the way things have gone these first two games at Fenway. Blink and you risk missing a whole bunch of Rays runs. This team is (as are most) at its most dangerous when stringing good at-bats together. And boy have they done that in games 3 and 4.

The Rays scoring was completed in the eighth, by - guess who - Crawford and Aybar. After Pena walked to lead off the inning, CC tripled to right - his fifth hit of an extraordinary night. Considering that he missed the last month and a half on the regular season, and indeed prior to game 1 of the ALDS had not swung a bat in anger since early August, Carl has been nothing short of amazing. For the postseason, he is hitting .429 with 3 extra-base hits, 6 RBI and 5 steals. This is the Carl Crawford that is the envy of General Managers across the league. When CC is on, he makes things happen.

While CC's night may have been more running-intensive, Willy Aybar quietly put together a superb show of his own. He rounded out things with an RBI-single to score Crawford, taking his line for the night to 4-5, HR, 5 RBI. I think along with other Rays fans I can't say enough about Willy. I guess we were all quietly pleased when he got injured in early April, as it meant Evan arrived sooner than possibly expected, but since his return Aybar has been a key piece of this club. The super-sub extraordinaire. What a great (and unheralded) pick-up he was last winter. Just one in an ever-growing list by Andrew Friedman and the Rays' front office.

While the hitting spectacular was going on in the tops of the innings, in the bottoms Andy Sonnanstine was doing what he does best - winning. He pretty much coasted through the game. His final line was blotted by a couple of excuse-me runs late on when the game was already effectively over, but even so it is not to be sniffed at - 7 1/3 IP, 6 H, 4 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 2 K. And the big W. Trever Miller and Edwin Jackson got the final five outs, and that was that. I actually feel I should right more about Sonny, because he was excellent, but really there's not that much that you can say about him. He's just so understated, but so good with it. Through 6 innings (by which time the Rays had scored 11), he had given up just 2 hits, and had retired 12 straight. That's 12 straight Sox. Ok, so they're not hitting well at the moment, but that is impressive in any context.

Also impressive was the Rays defense. We actually committed three errors (the first of the entire postseason), but they were all excusable - Longoria was charged with two on a play he was trying to make whilst avoiding a flying piece of Jason Bay's bat, and BJ with one when he overran a ball late on. Upton was the star of the show in the field though, chasing down fly balls with ridiculous ease. You often hear commentators talking about his gliding stride, and sometimes it is hard to believe that he is moving fast. But watching him cover the ground in deep left-centre at Fenway, and you'd find it hard to believe that there is a better centrefielder anywhere in baseball. It was remarkable. And he topped it all off with a frankly un-human throw from against the wall in the triangle, all the way to Carlos Pena at first base as Jason Bay returned there following a deep fly out. It was amazing. Seriously, I have seen clean-up hitters hit line drives that aren't as straight, hard and true as that throw was.

So, that makes it 3 games to 1 in favour of Tampa Bay. One win needed with possibly three more to play. The feelings that I mentioned in anticipation of that first ever postseason game are back with avengance. Nervousness, impatience and excitement. I've got to believe that we can do it, that we can get to the World Series, but at the same time I know that the Red Sox have come back from here before. I know they could do it, I've just got to try and convince myself that we won't let them do it. It is not going to be easy.

Game 5 at Fenway is on Thursday night, and the Rays will be facing Dice-K again. A big improvement over game 1's hitting performance will be needed if we are to get a result. James Shields is scheduled to take the mound for Tampa Bay, but I have heard some reports that Joe Maddon may be tempted to go with Scott Kazmir instead. Kaz has a better track record than Shields at Fenway, and Shields would then be free to go in a potential game 6 at the Trop, where he frequently dominates. It'll be an interesting decision, but either way I know that they will be desperate to get the win. How sweet it would be to clinch the pennant at Fenway... But I'm not getting ahead of myself just yet.

Jonny Gomes rules

Ok, so Jonny had a poor year at the plate. He got optioned down to Triple A in the summer, and didn't make much of an impact when he came back up in September.

But he has contributed as much to the Rays getting to where they are, 2 games to 1 up in the ALCS, as almost anybody. For what he has lacked with the bat, he has more than made up for with hustle, heart and determination. The whole feel-good factor began in Spring Training when Jonny sprinted half way across the field to stand up for his teammate, Aki Iwamura, when he was (almost brutally) taken out by the Yanks' Shelley Duncan. And he's been a big part of keeping it going ever since.

I've gone on plenty of times in the past about how Gomes is a great guy to have around the clubhouse, and I won't repeat that now. But I just wanted to highlight this story on ESPN, as another example of why he's a great player to have for the community as well. Jonny Gomes is one of the real good guys.

ALCS game 3 - You ain't never going to keep them down

Tampa Bay Rays 9 - Boston Red Sox 1

I'm not even sure why I still get surprised at games like last night's. I mean, this is just what the 2008 Rays do. They take a situation where they're supposed to fold, supposed to be overwhelmed, and they come right out swinging their bats, making their pitches, and generally taking the game right to the opposition. And they keep winning. Its a crazy, crazy thing that these Rays have got going on.

With Jon Lester making the start for the Sox, the prospects for a Rays win weren't exactly promising. Not only had Lester not been beaten at Fenway since April, but he had never lost to the Rays (indeed, Boston had never lost a game to the Rays in which he pitched) and he was working on an impressive 20+ inning streak of postseason baseball without allowing an earned run.

But its the Rays. The 2008 Rays. So you can throw all that out the window.

It all started fairly innocuously. After a first inning that Lester sailed through 1-2-3, Evan Longoria led off the second with a walk. After CC struck out, Willy Aybar singled up the middle. Dioner Navarro stepped up, and watched as Jason Varitek failed to handle a fastball, allowing the runners to move up on the passed ball. Navvi then fought off a grounder to second, allowing Longoria, going on contact, to trot home without a throw. And just like that the Rays were on the board.

And an inning later, they were even more on the board. Jason Bartlett led off with a single (continuing his impressive hitting year against leftys), and Aki Iwamura followed with a double of the Green Monster. Runners on second and third, nobody out, BJ Upton comes to the plate. I think it would be fair to say that BJ has found his power swing. He connected in a big way, launching the ball clear over the Monster, over the seats, and into the car park across the road. Another postseason homerun - his fifth in seven games. When BJ is hitting well, he is as good as just about anyone.

Of course when you are looking for super-talented youngsters to compare Upton with, you should make sure you don't overlook his teammates. One of them in particular. Evan Longoria. And just to make sure that you don't, one out later Evan connected with a Jon Lester pitch of his own. It wasn't quite as mammoth a shot as Upton's, but it was still a no-doubter. Not only that, but it was perfectly placed, making a bee-line right into the hands of perhaps the only Rays fan sitting in the Monster seats. Ok, so he dropped it, but it was pretty good aim nonetheless. That makes it four playoff homers for Longo, tying Miguel Cabrera's rookie mark. Impressive.

Meanwhile, Matt Garza was quietly pitching beautifully for the Rays as he sailed through six scoreless innings. The biggest threat came in the second, when the Sox got runners on second and third with one out. Garza didn't get fazed, and came back, getting Varitek out on a perfectly placed called third strike, before retiring Cora on a fly out to Upton.

The score was still 5-0 Rays when Garza came out to start the seventh. Already at over 100 pitches, he allowed a walk and a single, finally leaving after 6+ innings, having given up 6 hits while striking out 5. JP Howell (Mr Clutch the Reliever) came in with the runners on first and third and nobody out. He gave up a sacrifice fly to right to Jacoby Ellsbury, but ended the threat right there, thanks to a beautiful double play ball against the dangerous Pedroia. Evan Longoria showed off just why he's going to win plenty of Gold Gloves in his career, making a running scoop and perfect throw to Aki at second, who then turned it as perfectly as ever.

Then the Rays, not content with what had become a four run lead, did what they do best. They came back again and kept on hitting. With Paul Byrd on in relief, Crawford and Aybar led off with back-to-back singles. Navvi followed with another grounder to second, but this time the throw came home and despite CC's best efforts Varitek held on to the ball and made the first out. Still, never mind, it merely set the stage for the feel-good moment of the entire postseason.

With two on and one out, up stepped Rocco Baldelli. A New Englander (he's from Rhode Island) and a Sox fan growing up, appearing in a playoff game at Fenway would have been huge enough. But having comeback from his myriad of injuries and illness, to even have a chance at being there is a testament to Rocco's unbelievable perserverence and dedication to playing the game. And he got his reward for all his hard-work in the biggest possible way. He turned on a pitch inside from Byrd and mashed it high above the Monster for a 3-run homer. Even Sox fans had to feel a little bit pleased for him. As for me, I couldn't be more delighted.

That made it 8-1, and in the top of the ninth Carlos Pena, probably feeling a little left out at all the homerun hitting, joined in the party himself. He went the other way, to deep left-centre, hitting his first longball of the postseason. After hitting 30-odd in the regular season, he must almost be wondering whats going on - he's trailing in the wake of Upton's 5 homers, despite the fact that BJ hit only 9 during the whole regular season. On the other hand, Pena put down a perfect bunt single in the fifth, and proceeded to steal second - his third swipe of the playoffs, putting him comfortably ahead of speedster BJ.

That blast rounded off the scoring for the Rays, while JP Howell coasted through the eighth and Edwin Jackson made his playoff debut with a scoreless ninth to wrap up the win, and edge the Rays ahead for the first time in the series, 2-1.

Game four is tonight, and has intrigue written all over it. Starting for the Rays will be Andy Sonnanstine, fresh off a quality effort in the ALDS clincher. He pitched fantastically against the Sox this year, so no doubt will be looking for similar results tonight. Going for Boston will be long-time Rays' nemesis Tim Wakefield. He's actually 0-2 against Tampa Bay this year, but still 19-5 for his career. I hope we can continue our recent success against him, but he's one of those guys (ie a knuckleballer!) who you just don't ever know what sort of form he's going to be in. Expect to see another funky lineup from Maddon, probably righty-heavy, and very possibly with our switch-hitters batting righty as well. Unusual maybe, but it worked last time out. Lets hope it does again.